E-Paper
WTO talks collapse over rich-poor rift
Talks collapsed after rich and poor nations failed to bridge divisions over agriculture & investment.
The 5th WTO ministerial meeting collapsed after 100 odd developing countries blocked the EU agenda to bring four Singapore issues, including investment rules and competition policy, into the work programme of trade negotiations and the draft declaration failed to address the concerns of developing countries, including India on contentious agriculture issues.
A one-page statement issued at the conclusion on Sunday said the declaration could not be adopted as more work was needed to be done in some key areas to enable 146 member countries to proceed towards the conclusion of the negotiations in fulfilment of the commitments made at Doha.
The statement did not give any reason for the failure of the talks but admitted it was a "setback" to the multilateral trade negotiations. The US blamed some delegations for refusing to compromise but did not name them, while developing countries celebrated their newfound strength in trade bargaining.
"The meeting did not come to successful conclusion," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said speaking on behalf of G-22 developing countries formed to put up a united stand on agriculture.
Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley claimed success in the failure as the exercise had forged a formidable alliance of developing countries to put agriculture issue in the centre-stage of negotiations.
However, he refused to be drawn into any blame game for the collapse of the talks. He said this would not hit the future of multilateral trading system and India would continue to play a proactive role.
Amorim said the conference was a victory for developing countries and sowed unity in pressing their demands, particularly for the reduction of agricultural subsidies.
"This is an organisation governed by consensus and consensus was not there," US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said, adding the larger lesson of Cancun was that useful compromise requires a serious willingness to focus on work and not rhetoric to attain the fine balance between ambition and flexibility.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, another key player in the negotiations, said failure at Cancun was not only a severe blow for the WTO but also a lost opportunity for developed and developing countries alike.
